[Footnote 52: Aubrey's _Lives_, vol. ii., p. 224.] [Footnote 53: A brilliant entertainment given at York House in 1620 was attended by Ben Jonson, who said that all things seemed to smile about the old house--"the fire, the wine, the men"; he speaks of Bacon as:-- "England's high Chancellor, the destin'd heir, In his soft cradle, to his father's chair, Whose even thread the Fates spin round and full, Out of their choicest and whitest wool." A few months later, the Committee of the House of Lords waited upon the Chancellor at York House in order to enquire personally whether the confession of guilt which he had sent them was really his. "My Lords," he replied, "it is my act, my hand, my heart; I beseech your Lordships to be merciful to a broken reed."] [Footnote 54: _London Past and Present_, vol. iii., p. 538.] [Footnote 55: P. 95.] [Footnote 56: _Curiosities of Literature_, vol. v., p. 223.] [Footnote 57: Bishop Goodman's _Memoirs_, vol. ii., p. 371.] [Footnote 58: _The Town_, ed. 1859, p. 362.] CHAPTER XI The York Water-Gate--Inigo Jones' Beautiful Work--Built for the Duke of Buckingham--The Proposal for its Removal--Satires on the Subject--The Gate Neglected--Its Restoration--The Water Tower--The West-end supplied with Water from Here--The Steam Engine--Samuel Pepys resides in Buckingham Street--William Etty and Clarkson Stanfield--Peter the Great Lodges Here--His Love of Strong Drink--The Witty Earl of Dorset--David Hume and Jean Jacques Rousseau--Moore writes to his Publisher Here--The Father of Modern Geology--A Great Actor dies Here--The Original of Smollett's Hugh Strap--David Copperfield's Chambers--Evelyn lives in Villiers Street--Sir Richard Steele--Zara acted Here--Mrs Cibber--Misstatement by "Anthony Pasquin."